TidBITS#1007/14-Dec-2009
========================
Issue link:
It's our final email issue of 2009, and we're going out with a bang:
a 50%-off sale on all Take Control ebooks. We also have lots of
great articles, including news of the Google Chrome for Mac beta,
problems with 27-inch iMac screens, details of Apple's new Mac Pro
and Xserve configurations, and a look at training for MacSpeech
Dictate that's offered by experts with disabilities. Rich Mogull
returns this week to calm fears about the last issue of TidBITS
triggering badly written anti-spam filters and to worry that his
continued reliance on the still-broken iCal Server is evidence of a
mental disorder. Oh, and you simply must watch this YouTube video
Adam found; it's a mashup of Internet documentary talking heads
sounding utterly absurd. Equally odd are some of the examples of
dual-display devices he researched recently. Notable software
releases this week include VMware Fusion 3.0.1, Things 1.2.6,
Keyboard Maestro 4.0, BusyCal 1.1, MacBook/MacBook Pro Optical Drive
Firmware Updates, Camino 2.0.1, and AirPort Client Update 2009-002.
See you in 2010!
Articles
TidBITS 2009 Holiday Hiatus
Take Control Holiday Sale: 50% Off All Ebooks
Google Chrome for Mac Beta Released
New iMac Screens Cracking and Flickering
Apple Updates Mac Pro and Xserve Configuration Options
Hilarious Mashup Video from Internet Documentary
Follow Important Software Updates in the TidBITS Watchlist
MacSpeech and TEI Offer One-On-One Training
The Great TidBITS Malware False Alarm of 2009
8 Innovative Dual-Display Devices
Banging My Head Against iCal Server's Limitations
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 14 December 2009
ExtraBITS for 14 December 2009
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 14 December 2009
------------ This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by: --------------
* READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!
Special thanks this week to Chris Engst, Charles Fleishman,
Barry Jarvinen, and Michael A. Alderete for their generous support!
* Get Fetch 5.5 for free! Fetch Softworks makes Fetch, the original
Macintosh FTP client, free for educational and charitable use.
Fetch 5.5 lets you edit and Quick Look all kinds of files.
Apply today at !
* WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social Networks
Create a complete social network with your company or group's
own look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.
Take a guided tour today
* Bare Bones Software's BBEdit 9.3 -- A burly upgrade with new
Sleep command, LassoScript support, plus enhancements to Projects
and core features like Find and Multi-File Search windows,
editing in browsers, and text completion.
* THE MISSING SYNC: Take it with you! The Missing Sync makes
it easy to synchronize contacts, calendars, notes, photos
and more from your Mac to your BlackBerry, HTC, Treo,
iPhone and other phones.
* Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.
Is your Office up-to-date? Make sure you're running the latest
versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage by choosing
Check for Updates from the Help menu of any Office application!
* The MacSpeech Dictate family is growing. Now for everyday use
and the new MacSpeech Dictate Medical with almost 60 specialist
vocabularies, and MacSpeech Dictate Legal for legal professionals.
Learn more:
* StuffIt Deluxe 2010 gives you a free file-transfer service, built
right into your Mac! Introducing StuffIt Connect, the easiest way
to share large files online. Compress, secure, and send any file.
Only $39.99 until 01-Jan-10!
---------- Help support TidBITS by supporting our sponsors ------------
TidBITS 2009 Holiday Hiatus
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
article link:
The end of 2009 approaches, but with a rather different feel. For
once, we managed to schedule our ebook releases so we weren't quite
so crazed over the last few weeks (but don't miss our 50-percent-off
sale!). Plus, for the first time in memory, early January won't be
taken up by Macworld Expo (now taking place in the middle of
February).
But one thing that is the same is that I'm reminded as always of how
lucky Tonya and I are to have the highly capable and amiable
assistance of Glenn, Jeff, Joe, Matt, Mark, Rich, and Doug, along
with the many Take Control authors and editors. We're also indebted
to digital.forest for hosting our Internet servers, and to our
TidBITS corporate sponsors for helping us keep the lights on. And,
of course, we owe huge thanks to the writers who have contributed
articles to TidBITS throughout the year, to the volunteer
translators who make TidBITS available in other languages, to the
individuals who leave comments on articles and participate in
TidBITS Talk, and to everyone who carves out precious time to read
what we write.
Thank you, one and all, and may all your holiday wishes come true.
We're taking the final two weeks of the year off from the email
issue, so we and the rest of the TidBITS staff can spend time with
our families, reflect on the past year, rest up a bit for 2010, and,
in my case, recuperate from my second hernia surgery of the year
last week (the first one in January didn't take, apparently, but
recovery so far from this one has been much easier).
Be sure to stop by the TidBITS Web site or subscribe to our RSS or
Twitter feeds for news, ExtraBITS links, Watchlist items, and other
articles we can't resist posting. We'll continue to moderate TidBITS
Talk discussions as well, though undoubtedly at a more relaxed pace.
The next email issue of TidBITS will come out on 4 January 2010.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Take Control Holiday Sale: 50% Off All Ebooks
---------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
article link:
To celebrate the holiday season and the end of another year, we're
having a 50-percent-off sale on all the ebooks we sell - Take
Control titles and the Macworld Superguides, along with the ebook
version of my "iPhoto '09: Visual QuickStart Guide." This is a great
opportunity to try your first Take Control title, stock up on tech
reading for the new year, or update your collection of Take Control
ebooks quickly and efficiently with a single trip through the cart,
starting from any link in this article. (The sale is only for
ebooks, not our at-cost print-on-demand versions. Bits are easy,
atoms are hard.)
Want to give one of our ebooks as a gift? Since we don't use DRM of
any sort, you can buy the ebook just as you would buy it for
yourself and then give the PDF file to your recipient using the
technology of your choice, such as a funky USB thumb drive or nicely
labeled CD-R if you need something physical to wrap. For last minute
gift-giving, you can just attach one of our PDFs to an email message
or drop it in an iChat window while you're wishing the recipient
many happy regards.
Not sure what titles might be most useful to you? Here's a guide:
* You've been a power user for years, and you like to know precisely
what's going on under the hood and why. Our best-selling title, Take
Control of Mac OS X Backups, Fourth Edition, covers the field of Mac
backups in a huge way; Take Control of iPhone OS 3 provides all
sorts of geeky iPhone details and troubleshooting advice; and Take
Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network explains the many, many
things to know about Apple's AirPort base stations and Wi-Fi
networking on the Mac. And, if you want to understand how Mac OS X
handles syncing managed data like contacts and calendar items, Take
Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard has the scoop on Sync
Services and the truth database.
* You know your way around your Mac at a basic level, but you'd like
to better understand how things work. Take Control of Users &
Accounts in Snow Leopard brings you up to speed on how accounts work
in Mac OS X, while Take Control of the Mac Command Line with
Terminal introduces you to the command line and helps you use it for
practical tasks. Take Control of Exploring & Customizing Snow
Leopard helps you get started with various aspects of Mac OS X, and
Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X is required reading for anyone
frustrated by having to enter passwords frequently on a Mac and on
Web sites. If you want a solid, useful overview of the most
important aspects of Mac OS X, there's the Macworld Total Snow
Leopard Superguide. Finally, if you want to prevent and fix
problems, check out Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac and Take
Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac.
* You're less interested in Mac OS X than in running applications that
let you communicate with family and friends or help you create Web
sites, podcasts, music, photographic slideshows, and more. Check out
Take Control of Safari 4, Take Control of iWeb '09, Take Control of
Making Music with GarageBand '09, Take Control of Recording with
GarageBand '09, Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac, and Take
Control of Customizing Microsoft Office. Also, don't miss the
Macworld Digital Photography Superguide and iPhoto '09: Visual
QuickStart Guide.
* You're planning to upgrade your Mac to Snow Leopard over the holiday
break, or you're planning to give Snow Leopard as a gift. Take
Control of Upgrading to Snow Leopard has clear, step-by-step
instructions for a painless, stress-free upgrade, and Take Control
of Exploring & Customizing Snow Leopard goes the next step by
showing you around Snow Leopard's main features.
* You have an iPhone or iPod touch, or one figures in your gift-giving
plans for the season. Take Control of Your iPhone Apps is a
must-read for anyone starting with an iPhone because it lets you in
on hidden features in Apple's core apps that you aren't likely to
find on your own. And Take Control of iPhone OS 3 provides in-depth
configuration details and troubleshooting advice should anything go
wrong. For a general overview, also see the Macworld iPhone & iPod
touch Superguide, Third Edition.
Or, if you aren't quite sure what you might be interested in, check
out our catalog page, which you can view by topic or as a big list
of ebooks, sorted alphabetically.
The sale lasts until the end of December, so please tell your
friends!
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Google Chrome for Mac Beta Released
-----------------------------------
by Doug McLean
article link:
Google has finally released a beta Mac OS X version of its
WebKit-based Internet browser, Google Chrome. Chrome is notable for
launching each tab as a separate process, which isolates security
breaches, reduces waits from JavaScript hangups, and, in the event
of a crash, takes down only that process instead of all open pages
in a browser.
To better understand how Chrome differs from other browsers,
consider taking a gander at artist Scott McCloud's comic which
explains the browser's technical ins-and-outs in everyday language.
(To learn more about the comic itself see "Google Explains Its
Forthcoming Web Browser with Comics," 1 September 2008).
Since Chrome was first announced, Apple and the Mozilla Foundation
have both released significant improvements to the JavaScript
engines that power Safari and Firefox. The speed of JavaScript was
lauded at Chrome's launch, because faster JavaScript means smoother
interactions with Web-based applications that rely on huge libraries
of code that run in the browser.
In the press notes for its browser's launch, Google notes the Chrome
development process comprised "73,804 lines of Mac-specific code
written; 29 developer builds; 1,177 Mac-specific bugs fixed; 12
external committers and bug editors to the Google Chrome for Mac
code base; 48 external code contributors; 64 Mac minis doing
continuous builds and tests; 8,760 cups of soft drinks and coffee
consumed; and 4,380 frosted mini-wheats eaten." Thank goodness for
sugar and caffeine!
Google Chrome for Mac Beta is free and requires Mac OS X 10.5 on an
Intel-based Mac. It's available as a 17.6 MB download.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
New iMac Screens Cracking and Flickering
-----------------------------------------
by Doug McLean
article link:
2 comments
Almost two months ago Apple announced a series of updates to the
iMac line (see "New iMac Models Receive Larger Screens, SD Card
Slot," 20 October 2009). Changes included larger screens (21.5-inch
and 27-inch displays), SD card slots, and overall upgraded specs -
most surprising of which were the first quad-core processors to be
made available in a Mac outside of the Mac Pro and Xserve. At the
time of the announcement, Apple noted that the i5 and i7 quad-core
models would be shipping later than the rest, in November 2009.
As eagerly awaiting customers have begun to receive their shipments,
a disconcerting trend of cracked screens and problematic displays
has emerged. A thread on the Apple Support Discussion forums
discussing the problems has received over 32,500 views and nearly
200 responses - significant numbers that indicate widespread
affliction. Yet, user forums are often difficult places to
synthesize information regarding problems like this, as specifics
are generally muddled within anecdotal paragraphs. Thankfully, the
Apple iMac (Fall 2009) Issues site (hosted on the anonymously run
imac.squeaked.com) has brought clarity and analysis to the cases
presented in the Apple discussion forums.
The iMac Issues site disclaims that "The data presented here is
based on information submitted by people on this Web site or taken
from comments posted in Apple's Discussion boards (this is an
'unscientific' survey and as such should not be considered
representative of all iMacs sold)." Be that as it may, it does help
clarify the available data.
**Looking at the Numbers** -- While a cracked screen is a more
startling problem and makes for a more arresting story (and,
fortunately, an easy replacement), most users complaining about
their displays are in fact affected by poor video output. Of the 482
cases logged by the iMac Issues site, 71 were related to cracked
screens while 225 revolved around flickering displays. Other
symptoms listed include a yellow-tinted screen (often appearing as a
band on the bottom portion of the screen), dead pixels, and an
inability to boot. Descriptions of display issues also include the
appearance of the display tearing or splitting, or of its image
becoming offset and distorted. 78 users are counted as having
absolutely no problems.
Affected systems are far more likely to be one of the 27-inch
models, especially when concerning instances of broken glass. Of the
405 cases identifying some kind of problem, 374 involved a 27-inch
iMac, while only 31 involved a 21.5-inch iMac. When the problem
identified is broken glass, all of the cases involve a 27-inch iMac.
While it makes some sense that the larger model's glass is
disproportionately affected because its extra screen space makes it
that much more vulnerable during shipping, it's harder to explain
the discrepancy between the video output issues, unless the numbers
simply reflect the 27-inch model's popularity relative to the
21.5-inch model.
**Examining Causes** -- No definitive conclusions have been reached
regarding the causes of these problems. Especially mysterious is
that in the majority of cases with broken glass, the packaging
appeared unscathed. We assume the computers are going into their
boxes in good condition, which leaves either excessive fragility or
issues with transport and packaging to blame. With the packaging
itself usually showing no signs of distress, figuring out exactly
what's happening inside the boxes en route becomes a puzzle.
As for the flickering and problematic displays (videos of which can
be found on YouTube), suggested causes, or at least avenues for
further investigation, include high computer temperatures, defective
power supplies, incompatibility with AirPort base stations, and an
issue related to brightness settings - dimming the monitor appears
to reduce the symptoms. Yet for all the speculation, consensus on
the issue has yet to be reached.
**What You Can Do** -- If you are affected by the screen flickering
issues, be sure to contact Apple, either online or by working with
an Apple Genius at a retail store, to ensure your problem is logged.
Also consider adding your experiences to the ongoing Apple
discussion forum thread linked earlier or submitting your data to
the iMac Issues site's survey.
For those with broken screens, Apple has been replacing these iMacs
without hesitation - though a few unfortunate customers have
received replacements that were themselves broken. If you have an
Apple retail store nearby, consider seeking your replacement there
until this issue is resolved.
We hope to see Apple address what are clearly serious and widespread
problems quickly and fully.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Apple Updates Mac Pro and Xserve Configuration Options
------------------------------------------------------
by Doug McLean
article link:
2 comments
Apple has quietly updated its Mac Pro and Xserve lines with new
configurations. The Mac Pro quad-core model now includes the option
to replace the base configuration's 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon processor
with a 3.33 GHz Intel Xeon. Price? $1,200 for the processor swap.
Newly available in both the quad-core Mac Pro and the eight-core
model is the option to replace each of the base configuration's hard
drives with 2 TB 7200 rpm drives. This brings the maximum capacity
of the Mac Pro up to 8 TB, from 4 TB, and does so at the price of
$350 for the first drive, and $550 for each subsequent drive.
Apple's Xserve lineup sees the same 2 TB hard drive upgrade option,
at the price of $450 for the first drive and $550 for each
subsequent drive. (Xserve drives are more expensive than Mac Pro
drives due to the drive carriers and other reasons; see "Going Deep
Inside Xserve Apple Drive Modules," 27 March 2009.) The new option
brings the Xserve's maximum capacity to 6 TB, up from 3 TB.
Also, new to the Xserve quad-core model is the option to configure
the machine with 24 GB of RAM, or 4 GB per slot, at the hefty price
of $2,850. (The eight-core Xserve model features 12 RAM slots
instead of the quad-core's 6 slots.)
Now that the iMac boasts substantial specs (see "New iMac Models
Receive Larger Screens, SD Card Slot," 20 October 2009), upgrade
options such as these help further define the Mac Pro and Xserve as
the powerhouses of Apple's product line.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Hilarious Mashup Video from Internet Documentary
------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
article link:
By now, you've certainly seen at least one earnest documentary
talking about the profound effects the Internet is having on
society. That's why Cassetteboy's "The Web for Beginners" mashup
video of uncut footage from a forthcoming four-part BBC documentary
about the Internet is so funny - it takes all the usual talking
heads and cuts their interviews into wonderfully absurdist
statements like, "It turns out that the Internet is just fax
machines that think the thoughts of somebody who lived 8,000 years
ago."
The BBC is actually encouraging this use as part of their Digital
Revolution Short Film Competition, which provides the uncut footage
to anyone to download and edit; the BBC commissioned Cassetteboy (a
self-described "double act who edit footage they've nicked off the
telly to make celebrities swear") to create this piece as an example
of what can be done.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Follow Important Software Updates in the TidBITS Watchlist
----------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
article link:
Often, when I use the Macs of friends or relatives, I notice that a
lot of their software is out of date. It's not surprising. Although
Sparkle and other automatic update mechanisms (see "Sparkle Improves
Application Update Experience," 20 August 2007) have made the act of
downloading and installing an update easier, many people are leery
of installing updates until they've heard from a trusted source that
the update is worthwhile. That's true even of updates from Apple;
nearly every time I visit my parents, I install all the Apple
updates that Software Update has been recommending since my last
visit.
That's one of the reasons that we write about software updates in
TidBITS - to give you a head start on determining whether an update
is worthwhile before you're prompted to update. The other reason is
to alert you to updated software that you may have dismissed in the
past due to bugs or missing features, or that you may simply not
have known about.
Obviously, we don't always have time to explore the software in
detail - the announcement of an update should not be considered a
review - but we do put thought into covering only updates to the
software we think is most interesting. (We generally post no more
than a couple of items per day, whereas VersionTracker shows 64
updates for just the day before I wrote this.) Even for software we
consider interesting, if the update in question is too minor, we
won't clutter your head with additional information about it. (To
give credit where credit is due, staff writer Doug McLean is
handling the vast majority of these updates.)
For a long time, we treated updates like any other article, but even
with our editorial filtering there were too many releases to cover
in any significant depth. So, we created a TidBITS Watchlist article
that we would update throughout the week with new updates. That
worked fine for publishing in the email issue the following week,
but worked badly for helping our Web- and RSS-based readers learn
about updates as we posted them. The single TidBITS Watchlist
article also integrated poorly with our highly successful TidBITS
Commenting System.
However, we didn't want to post each Watchlist item as a normal
article, since they'd totally take over our home page, pushing other
articles off quickly. So Glenn and Jeff and I put our heads together
and came up with what we think is a much better approach.
We are now writing Watchlist items as independent articles, which
enables them to collect comments and be dealt with individually.
However, we've tweaked the TidBITS Publishing System to keep
Watchlist items off the headline list on our home page; that
prevents other articles from disappearing too quickly.
To simplify finding the Watchlist items, we've created a TidBITS
Watchlist widget in the upper right corner of every page on our
site, listing the last 10 items we've posted. Click an item's name
to read its full writeup and leave any comments you may have about
that program.
Though they don't appear on our home page, Watchlist items do show
up in the headline lists for the various sections of our site,
available from the left-side navigation bar. They also appear in our
RSS feed as independent items.
Our email issues required a different approach. Although many
independent articles work well on the Web and in RSS, they become
overwhelming in email. So there we've maintained the single TidBITS
Watchlist collection article; those of you who only read TidBITS in
email probably haven't noticed anything different. This week brings
one small but important change: each Watchlist item in the
collection has a link that makes it easy for you to comment on what
you think about the update on our Web site. Your comments really do
help extend the depth of our coverage, so keep them coming!
The magic of the TidBITS Publishing System enables us to keep this
TidBITS Watchlist collection article, along with the ExtraBITS
collection article that collects individual ExtraBITS links from the
site, exclusive to the email issue, where the collections make sense
and off of our Web site, where individual items are more
appropriate.
So take a few minutes and check out how the TidBITS Watchlist widget
works, and let us know in the comments if this approach to alerting
you to software updates is effective, or if there's something we
could be doing even better.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
MacSpeech and TEI Offer One-On-One Training
-------------------------------------------
by Doug McLean
article link:
MacSpeech, Inc., maker of the popular speech recognition utility
MacSpeech Dictate ($199), has partnered with The Emergent Institute
(TEI) to offer specialized one-on-one software training. But in a
twist from the usual training scenarios, TEI employs people with
disabilities who are also experts in accessibility technologies,
including MacSpeech Dictate.
While TEI, founded in 2006, was originally a customer of MacSpeech
(having purchased a copy of the now-retired iListen), the current
partnership comes out of requests from MacSpeech customers for
training that goes beyond the basic technical support. Andrew
Taylor, founder and CEO of MacSpeech, Inc., says, "People seem
interested in being taught, one-on-one, how to use MacSpeech Dictate
to its fullest. Our video tutorials have been helpful in covering
the basics, but a lot of people want their own individual training
sessions."
Although one would assume that anyone offering training would be an
expert in the product in question, TEI's trainers themselves rely on
MacSpeech Dictate and can thus offer a higher level of insight and
empathy about using the product in real-world situations.
Don Whittecar, founder of The Emergent Institute, described the
project's origins. "Some of us tried speech recognition on the PC
platform and found it very difficult to use. Our use of the
MacSpeech family of speech recognition software is centered on
MacSpeech Dictate, which is significantly easier to learn and
develop depth of use with. The company and I had discussed several
ways that TEI and MacSpeech could network over the past two years,
so when Andrew Taylor became involved and the discussion turned to
the training aspect, it was a natural fit."
TEI's training covers any aspect of the program with which you might
need assistance: creating a profile, controlling your Mac via
commands, better utilizing the Cache Selection feature, developing
optimum recognition, working with specialized vocabularies, and
more. Training is user-directed, so you can get help with the
precise aspects of the program you want, without wasting time on
parts you already understand. Additionally, with trainers using a
combination of screen sharing and phone support to run the virtual
sessions, you can receive training whenever and wherever it's
convenient for you.
MacSpeech Dictate One-on-One Training is available for the entire
MacSpeech Dictate product lineup, including MacSpeech Dictate Legal,
Medical, and International. Training sessions cost $69.95 per
50-minute session, though an introductory price of $49.95 is being
offered for the first session until the end of 2009 (use the coupon
code "TRAINING" at checkout to access the discount). Training
sessions are currently available only to registered users in the
United States and Canada, and can be scheduled by calling
888-712-7074.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
The Great TidBITS Malware False Alarm of 2009
---------------------------------------------
by Rich Mogull
article link:
1 comment
On December 8th I woke up, went through my usual morning routine,
grabbed my coffee, and sat down at my Mac to start the work day. As
it was a Tuesday, I scanned my email for TidBITS #1006 and was
slightly surprised that it wasn't in my Inbox. Since I had recently
added another spam filter, I assumed the issue had been blocked, so
I planned on pulling it out of quarantine later.
But the mystery deepened when a reader sent me an email message
saying that his copy of the issue had been flagged as containing
malicious software. Since I had been engaged in an intense Twitter
debate a few days earlier claiming that Mac-based malware was rarely
encountered by the average user, I immediately went into panic mode
and started investigating.
I checked my frontline spam and virus filter (Google's Postini
service), and the TidBITS issue wasn't flagged for anything there.
However, when I checked my second filter, a special appliance on my
network, I found the issue had been flagged as containing malware.
According to my anti-spam appliance, TidBITS #1006 contained
"Email.Faketube", and when I reported this to Adam and the other
TidBITS staffers, it came out that we were all receiving sporadic
reports of this particular issue triggering a similar alert for
readers.
I quickly searched on the Internet for details about Email.Faketube
and found that it's a link that pretends to be from YouTube, but in
fact redirects a browser to a Web site that attempts to download a
Trojan horse (for Windows, not Mac OS X).
When I viewed the raw text of the TidBITS issue, I discovered that
there was indeed a YouTube link in it, pointing at the trailer for
the World of Goo game (see "TidBITS Gift Guide 2009," 7 December
2009).
By checking the link manually using one of the systems I have for
security research of risky sites, it became clear immediately that
the link was fine and did not redirect users to malware. Not that I
expected it would; we check all links that go into TidBITS articles,
so a link would have to change between the time we checked and when
the issue was published for something untoward to happen. But then
why the false alarm?
TidBITS Contributing Editor Mark Anbinder noticed that the string
"www" appears at the end of the YouTube-generated link. The YouTube
engine probably generates its links randomly, and the virus filters
triggered upon seeing the "www" at the end of the YouTube link,
thinking it was indicative of an attempt to redirect users.
Attackers use a variety of techniques to mangle Internet addresses,
one of which is adding characters to the end of a seemingly
legitimate address to cause the redirection.
As a result, it's clear that I, and our readers who saw the alert,
are all running a malware filter with a badly written rule set. It's
likely that the rule is "flag any message containing a YouTube link
with "www" after the 'watch?' portion of the address."
Unfortunately, that's not necessarily indicative of malware and is
thus a poor choice for a malware signature. (If nothing else,
there's no requirement to redirect to a page whose domain includes
"www" - such a filter is guaranteed to fail on any other domain.)
So the good news is that TidBITS #1006 wasn't infected in any way,
and our apologies for any worry the false alarm may have caused. The
bad news is that I now have to wonder about the quality of the
company providing my email filter rules.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
8 Innovative Dual-Display Devices
---------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
article link:
1 comment
I'm a huge proponent of secondary displays to increase productivity
- the more you can see, the easier it is to move from task to task
and to complete tasks that require referencing one resource while
working in another application. But laptops and ebook reading
devices have historically had trouble providing particularly large
screens; after all, the larger the screen, the less portable the
device.
One way to increase screen real estate without relying on a single
large display is to build in a second display, something that a
number of companies have been trying to do recently, with varying
levels of success. Honestly, I can't see Apple adopting any of these
approaches without some significant improvements in the industrial
design and overall user experience, but the ideas are interesting
nonetheless.
Here's a roundup of eight dual-display devices that I found - let me
know in the comments if you've seen others. It's worth noting that
all of these are real, at least in terms of being a prototype,
unlike purely graphical concepts like Mac|Life's triBook, which
imagines two hinged outrigger screens on either side of the main
display.
**Integrated Secondary Display** -- I've actually seen Lenovo's
ThinkPad W700ds in person, and let me tell you, it's a beast. The
ThinkPad W700ds features a large 17-inch main display, and a
vertically oriented 10.6-inch secondary display that optionally
slides out from the right side of the 17-inch display. The rest of
the machine's specs are equally over the top, with an option for a
Core 2 Quad Core Q9100 processor, 64 GB solid-state drive, built-in
webcam, two hard disks in a RAID configuration, WiMAX networking,
and even a Wacom onboard palm rest digitizer. It's not light,
needless to say, weighing in at 10.9 pounds (4.96 kg). Frankly, this
workhorse computer is big, ugly, and expensive ($3,133 list price),
and it barely counts as a laptop. But it does have two screens and
can be purchased today, unlike anything else here.
**Sliding Screen Netbook** -- DigInfo has posted a video from the 2009
CEATEC trade show that offers possibilities. In it, a company called
Kohjinsha shows off the DZ Dual-Display Netbook, which offers two
10.1-inch displays. In the standard position, one screen is hidden
behind the other. By pulling on either side of the case, you can
expose the second screen, and when fully extended, it appears that
the two are hinged so they can be angled toward you. The DX
Dual-Display Netbook is apparently available for pre-order now,
though possibly only in Japan.
**Full-size Sliding Screen Laptop** -- I can't quite tell how the
15.4-inch screens on the gScreen Spacebook slide, but I'm guessing
the mechanism is similar to Kohjinsha's DZ Dual-Display Netbook,
since the screen real estate expands horizontally. The Spacebook
isn't yet available, although the company's site makes it sound like
it should be real soon now. It will be a bit more svelte than
Lenovo's ThinkPad W700ds, weighing in at only 8.7 pounds (3.95 kg),
but that's still heavy, likely due to doubling the display glass. I
can't quite imagine Apple using an approach like this, simply due to
the weight involved.
**Small Auxiliary Screen** -- DigInfo also has another video,
seemingly from 2007, of a prototype tablet PC that offers a small
secondary display that swivels up from behind the main screen to sit
above it. Both are touch screens. I couldn't find any recent mention
of this device, apparently called the e-detail and made by a company
called Hub Tech. Overall, this approach looks and feels clumsy; I'm
not surprised it didn't make it into production.
**Dual Clamshell Laptop, Take 1** -- At CeBIT 2009, computer maker
Asus demoed a concept laptop that eschews a keyboard entirely,
instead offering a pair of touch screens that can change
functionality based on the task at hand. Held vertically, the
screens could offer a book-like reading experience, and held
horizontally like a normal laptop, the bottom screen could offer a
glass keyboard along the lines of the iPhone keyboard. The laptop,
inspired from user comments on Asus's WePC.com Web site, could also
be interesting for use with games requiring complex multi-touch
controls. This strikes me as the most likely direction for Apple to
go, should Apple decide to extend the iPhone/iPod touch concept up
into the size of a MacBook.
**Dual Clamshell Laptop, Take 2** -- Much like the Asus concept
laptop, the Estari Canova eliminates a keyboard entirely in favor of
a pair of touch screens. Where the Estari Canova goes further
though, is with a truly fascinating hinge that allows the Canova to
assume a wide variety of positions (pretty much all the Estari site
offers is screenshots of the many possible orientations). Although
the Virginia-based company claims to be bringing the Canova to
market, it's hard to tell if that's likely to happen. Apart from the
clever hinge, the rest of the industrial design is relatively
pedestrian.
**Screen Underneath Keyboard** -- Where the Estari Canova would use
only a glass keyboard and the gScreen Spacebook has screens that
slide out, the Ergonomic Dual Screen Split Keyboard Notebook
Computer combines these approaches by hiding a second screen
underneath the keyboard, which splits apart to provide access
(scroll down on the linked page to find it). The company appears to
be licensing the patented technology to OEMs, although it's unclear
if anyone has taken them up on it yet. Supposedly the split keyboard
is more ergonomic, but honestly, it just looks funky, although the
grey plastic case doesn't help.
**Dual-Screen Ebook Reader** -- By now, most people are familiar with
what ebook reading devices generally look like, with Amazon's Kindle
offering the most well-known example. But ebook readers always
settle for a single screen (though the Nook, from Barnes & Noble,
offers a small touch screen for navigation and control), despite the
fact that books always have two pages visible at all times. A
research project that Nicholas Chen, François Guimbretière,
Cassandra Lewis, and Maneesh Agrawala presented at the CHI 2008
conference offers an alternative - a dual-display ebook reader. You
can watch a video presentation of the prototype, or read more about
it at Nicholas Chen's site. Although the dual-display ebook reader
is a research project and I haven't seen any indication of it being
commercialized, the demo is pretty compelling. The device can be
opened like a normal book, but the hinge allows the screens to be
folded back-to-back, or even separated and used independently, just
as though you were working with multiple sheets of paper. Of all the
ideas surrounding multiple displays, this one feels the most like
something Apple would do.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Banging My Head Against iCal Server's Limitations
-------------------------------------------------
by Rich Mogull
article link:
21 comments
I know a lot of people hate iCal, but I've always been a fan. As a
longtime Microsoft Outlook user, I appreciate iCal's simplicity and
clean display. It isn't that Outlook does anything wrong - I think
it's vastly superior to competing enterprise messaging and
calendaring solutions - but if you don't need all those additional
features, iCal is a great substitute. (I briefly tried Microsoft
Entourage, Outlook's nearest Mac equivalent, but found it lacking in
multiple ways). As someone who has bounced around dozens of
different mobile devices, I also appreciate the general consistency
of iCal on the iPhone and Mac, and how current versions synchronize
the calendar colors.
iCal, in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and on the iPhone, even offers
extensive Exchange support for Mac users in enterprise environments
- which makes it all the more maddening that Apple's support for
iCal Server on Macs and iPhones is absolutely horrific. It's as if
Apple is deliberately driving users away from Mac OS X Server and
into the waiting arms of Microsoft.
**A Voyage of a Thousand Miles** -- My journey of iCal and iCal Server
despair began almost two years ago when I purchased an Apple Xserve
running Mac OS X Server 10.5 Leopard to run my security consulting
business. Leopard Server seemed like a near-ideal solution for a
Mac-based small business, for three key reasons.
* It enabled us to manage our email internally, which was important to
us for security reasons.
* It includes a well-designed wiki server that is directly tied to
user groups, mailing lists, and a shared calendar. Since I run a
research-based business, the wiki helped with internal collaboration
and enabled us to build and share an easily organized library of
content. Aside from normal wiki functions, the server indexes and
displays Web page tabs for all email messages sent to the wiki's
group mailing list, the group's calendar, and group blogs.
* It included iCal Server for individual and group calendaring.
Obviously, Leopard Server has many additional features, but these
three were what we needed to support our operations without having
to install and manage an Exchange server.
While Leopard Server's mail and wiki servers performed exactly as
expected (actually, the wiki exceeded our expectations), iCal Server
quickly failed to meet our needs. Although we could set up and
access the group calendars through the wiki's Web interface, there
was no official way to access these directly from iCal on our
computers (I've since found an unofficial method over at Mac OS X
Hints). In other words, although the group calendars were configured
and managed from iCal Server like user calendars, access was
available only through the wiki Web interface.
Also, I hoped the Web-based group calendar in the wiki would allow
us to view each others' appointments via the Web interface, but it
supported only the single, Web-only group calendar. Additionally, at
that time the iPhone didn't support Apple's own CalDAV calendars
(CalDAV is the protocol iCal Server uses), something that's
absolutely essential to me due to my heavy travel schedule. Starting
with iPhone OS 2.0, the iPhone could completely support Exchange
calendars, but not Apple's CalDAV calendars.
**Detour to MobileMe** -- Since I couldn't access CalDAV calendars
from my iPhone, set up shared calendars, or offer iCal access for
group calendars, I decided to stick with an alternate Apple service:
MobileMe. With MobileMe, at least my calendars would synchronize
with my iPhone wirelessly, although I still couldn't create the
mythical shared calendar so that, for example, my wife and I could
coordinate family events (never mind any shared/group calendars for
work).
Going with MobileMe unfortunately restricted me from using one
essential business calendaring feature: meeting invitations. For
reasons only Steve Jobs can fathom, you cannot accept meeting
invitations on an iPhone unless you are using a Microsoft Exchange
account. When a meeting invitation arrives in an email message in
the iPhone's Mail app, you see the standard iCal icon, but double
tapping only makes it a little bigger or smaller, as if you're
trying to zoom the icon. It's almost as if Apple is trying to taunt
you.
I could, of course, have switched to an Exchange server, but I
assumed these were minor glitches Apple would work out quickly, or
at least by the time Snow Leopard was released. Microsoft's Small
Business Server would meet all our needs completely, but Mac OS X
Server is more lightweight, and more closely matched our goals.
**Light at the End of the Tunnel?** With the release of iPhone OS 3.0
in June 2009 (see "Apple Previews iPhone 3.0 Software," 17 March
2009, and "iPhone OS 3.0 Ships 17-Jun-09," 8 June 2009), Apple
slowly narrowed the feature gap. iPhone OS 3.0 finally supported
calendar subscriptions, including connections to iCal Server's
CalDAV calendars, but I decided to hold off on changing anything
until the release of Snow Leopard because we'd already adapted our
workflow for our current infrastructure. The public information on
Snow Leopard hinted at greater iPhone support, better calendar
sharing, and even free/busy information to help coordinate meetings
among a group of individuals. Exactly what we were looking for.
Or not. Three weeks ago I made the transition to Mac OS X Server
10.6 Snow Leopard, only to experience new levels of frustration.
Overall, Snow Leopard Server is an excellent upgrade. It removes
some of the management inconsistencies of Leopard Server, while
adding valuable new features. With improved iPhone access, push
notifications, a better mail system, centralized address books, an
enhanced wiki, and even the long-awaited iCal Server 2, it's nearly
everything I hoped for.
Except for the blasted iCal/calendar support.
The first thing I noticed was that the Web-based wiki calendar
integration no longer worked. I mean, I think it's supposed to work,
and even though we weren't using it, the feature worked before our
upgrade, but now all we get are errors when we turn it on. I've
walked through every option in Server Admin (Apple's tool for
managing Mac OS X Server), and still can't get the Web calendars to
display, only a permissions error.
Okay, we can live without that, but what about iPhone support?
Connecting to the CalDAV calendars published by iCal Server 2 was
straightforward, and the calendars display just like any other
calendar on the iPhone. Technically, push notifications could keep
the iPhone up to date just like MobileMe, although we aren't using
those for security reasons (this is more due to the security we have
in front of our server than any problems with push notifications).
But how about those meeting invitations? Nope; despite running all
Apple software, there's _still_ no way to accept standard meeting
invitations (from iCal, Exchange, or any other source) on an iPhone
unless you're running an Exchange server.
Okay, we can also live without that, but what about iCal client
support?
As with Leopard Server, connecting iCal to Snow Leopard Server's
iCal Server 2 is fairly straightforward. I even found the secret
path to connect to group calendars, not that we can set them up
properly due to the broken wiki functionality.
But a CalDAV calendar in iCal is pretty much worthless. For whatever
reason, _if you use both local and CalDAV calendars, you cannot
accept meeting invitations onto your server calendars_! When a
meeting invitation arrives in Apple Mail, it's sent over to iCal as
expected, but you can _accept the invitation only on a local
calendar_.
This made no sense, and I assumed I was doing something wrong, but a
little searching on the Web validated that some bug (or feature) in
iCal won't let you accept meeting invitations and assign them to
your server-based calendar. Your only option is to duplicate the
entry, which makes you the meeting organizer, and assign that
duplicate to the server calendar. You can create your own entries on
the server calendars, you just can't accept meeting invitations...
even from other users on the same server. If you Command-click an
event made locally, you can assign it to any calendar in iCal,
whether it's local or on a server. Command-click a meeting
invitation, and only local calendars show as options.
It's just broken, unless, that is, you switch to a Microsoft
Exchange server. Snow Leopard and iCal 4.0 include excellent support
for Exchange servers, just like the iPhone.
I'm really starting to wonder if my ongoing dedication to iCal
Server is indicative of a serious mental disorder. Despite running
an all-Apple infrastructure with the Xserve, the Mac, and the
iPhone, I'm unable to carry out the most basic of business
calendaring tasks. I can't accept meeting invitations with iCal or
my iPhone and assign them to my business calendar, nor use the
built-in Web calendar that used to work before our upgrade. All of
these features are fully supported if I switch to a Microsoft
Exchange server, but after two major version releases of Mac OS X,
Mac OS X Server, and the iPhone OS, Apple still can't produce a
functional calendaring system.
And as I travel down path after frustrating path, a shadowy voice
keeps whispering in my ear. "Microsoft Exchange", it says.
"Exchange..."
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 14 December 2009
----------------------------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff
article link:
**VMware Fusion 3.0.1** -- VMware has released a significant
maintenance update to the company's virtualization software for the
Mac, VMware Fusion. Version 3.0.1 improves video and 3D performance,
adds support for Ubuntu 9.10, upgrades the networking subsystem to
64-bit native, and decreases load times when resuming a suspended
virtual machine. Also, over 50 bugs have been fixed, including
several that reduced performance, such as a bug that made it
difficult to upgrade to the latest version of VMware Tools and
another that triggered excessive Spotlight searches when the Virtual
Machine Library was left running in the background. Also, the update
addresses incompatibilities with Zone Alarms AV and Outlook 2007
Preview mode. Full release notes are available on VMware's Web site.
Note that you can still download our "Take Control of VMware Fusion
3" ebook for free. ($79.99 new, free update from 3.0, 186 MB)
Read/post comments about VMware Fusion 3.0.1.
**Things 1.2.6** -- Cultured Code has released a minor maintenance
update to the Getting Things Done-inspired task manager Things.
Changes include improved performance when working with multiple
to-dos in the Today list, added support for Quick Entry autofill for
Microsoft Entourage, and an added background application that
collects changes to system-wide to-dos and effectively fixes a
compatibility issue with Apple Mail iCal syncing. Also, several bugs
have been fixed, including one that caused the File dialog to freeze
occasionally, one that caused the program to crash when invoking
Quick Entry, and one that sometimes caused the program to crash when
emptying its trash. A full list of changes is available on Cultured
Code's Web site. ($49.95 new, free update, 8.3 MB)
Read/post comments about Things 1.2.6.
**Keyboard Maestro 4.0** -- Stairways Software has released a
significant update to the popular macro utility Keyboard Maestro.
Version 4.0 overhauls the user interface, adds 64-bit support, and
adds support for Growl notifications. Macros can now be executed
when hot keys are pressed, held down, or released. Also, Command-Tab
can now be used as a hot key, the program switcher can optionally
hide all other programs when switching, and the clipboard switcher
now offers both a search feature and display of images and rich
text. Version 4.0 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. ($36 new, $18
upgrade, 7.6 MB)
Read/post comments about Keyboard Maestro 4.0.
**BusyCal 1.1** -- BusyMac has released a maintenance update to
BusyCal, their iCal-inspired desktop calendar with built-in sharing
capabilities. The latest version adds 64-bit support in Snow
Leopard, three-finger scrolling, and a mini-month calendar to the
source list. Also, a Duration column has been added to List View,
"at start" has been added as an optional alarm interval, and both
Shift-Return and Option-Return are now supported for line feeds.
Various bugs have also been addressed, including some related to
Google Calendar syncing, along with two crashing bugs, one triggered
by corrupt system fonts and another by Unicode non-breaking space
characters. A full list of changes is available on BusyMac's Web
site. ($40 new, free update, 6 MB)
Read/post comments about BusyCal 1.1.
**MacBook/MacBook Pro Optical Drive Firmware Updates** -- Apple has
released three firmware updates, all of which claim to "eliminate
the noise made by the optical disk drive during system startup and
wake from sleep on your Mac." EFI firmware updates are available for
recent releases of the MacBook (MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.4) and
MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.8), and once the
Mac's firmware has been updated, you must install the SuperDrive
Firmware Update 3.0.
More information on EFI firmware updates, including installation
instructions, is available on Apple's Web site. Updates are
available via Software Update or the Apple Support Downloads page.
(Free, 18.35/3.14/3.36 MB)
Read/post comments about MacBook/MacBook Pro Optical Drive Firmware
Updates.
**Camino 2.0.1** -- The Camino Project has released a minor update to
the Mac-focused, Gecko-based Web browser Camino that addresses
several security and stability issues by upgrading the program to
version 1.9.0.16 of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine. Also,
ad-blocking has been improved, the search field has been restored to
the Help menu in non-English versions running on Snow Leopard, the
crash reporter now enables you to add your email address to a report
(for followup questions), and clicked error and warning text in
certificates no longer changes color. (Free, 15.8 MB)
Read/post comments about Camino 2.0.1.
**AirPort Client Update 2009-002** -- Some Snow Leopard users have
suffered from AirPort problems since 10.6 was released. In this
client update, which requires 10.6.2, Apple says it has fixed three
major bugs. First, it repairs some systems that, when upgraded from
Leopard to Snow Leopard, could not turn AirPort on or off. Second,
the update eliminates what Apple calls an "occasional" problem when
using Wake on Demand, where network access would be unavailable.
(Wake on Demand, new in Snow Leopard, lets a computer connected to
an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule base station be woken over either
Ethernet or Wi-Fi for network access to advertised Bonjour
services.) Finally, this update restores the capability to create
software base station (look in the Sharing preference pane) or
computer-to-computer networks to some MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac
mini systems that previously had trouble.
Read/post comments about AirPort Client Update 2009-002.
ExtraBITS for 14 December 2009
------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff
article link:
Our reading was nearly all about mobile devices this week, with
pointers to iPhone apps reviewing the events of the decade and
allowing AT&T customers to report poor service, plus articles about
the Barnes & Noble Nook ebook reader and AT&T's plans to curtail
heavy use of the iPhone data plan. Adam talked about iPhone GPS apps
with Andy Ihnatko and Chuck Joiner on MacNotables, and Andy also has
a hilarious blog post revealing the Dragon Dictation app's
prudishness. Finally, we note the fast approaching deadlines for
iPhoto print products and explain how recent AirPort base stations
have theoretically higher speeds.
**Decade Review App from We-Envision.com** -- As the first decade of
the twenty-first century comes to a close, We-Envision.com has
created an unusual iPhone app that provides a visual overview of 75
key world events from the last ten years. Bush v. Gore, the
September 11th terrorist attacks, the Southeast Asia tsunami,
Hurricane Katrina, the French student protests of 2006 and Burmese
monk protests of 2007, Barack Obama's election, and many others are
presented via full-screen photos from news sites, organized by date
or subject, and bolstered by Wikipedia-derived details.
Read/post comments
**iPhoto Print Product Order Deadlines Approaching** -- We're big fans
of iPhoto's print products - prints, books, cards, and especially
the calendars - as holiday gifts, but keep in mind that to receive
your order by December 24th, you'll need to place orders by December
18th with regular shipping or December 19th with express shipping.
Although iPhoto makes the mechanics of building books and calendars
easy, it can take some time to select and tweak photos as desired,
so we recommend getting started soon!
Read/post comments
**Pogue Finds B&N Nook a Weak Digital Reader** -- David Pogue reviews
the Barnes & Noble Nook electronic reader at the New York Times, and
finds it a poor competitor to the Kindle for identical features,
while its unique features don't measure up to a real difference.
Read/post comments
**AT&T Plans To Curtail Heavy iPhone Data Users** -- Expanding vaguely
on previous threats, AT&T's head says that the firm will offer
"incentives" to have heavy users reduce their usage. Incentives is
1984-speak for penalties.
Read/post comments
**Adam Chats about iPhone GPS Apps on MacNotables** -- In this most
recent MacNotables podcast, Adam and Andy Ihnatko talked with host
Chuck Joiner about the demise of the CrunchPad tablet briefly before
focusing on iPhone GPS apps and what they do right and wrong. (Don't
miss the outtakes!)
Read/post comments
**Andy Ihnatko Discovers Dragon Dictatation's Prudishness** -- The
inimitable Andy Ihnatko writes on his Celestial Waste of Bandwith
blog about testing Dragon Dictation, the free iPhone version of
Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation software. Andy
accidentally discovers that Dragon Dictation censors naughty words,
which practically forces him to read it George Carlin's famous
"Seven Words" routine, with predictably amusing results. Why censor?
Perhaps to get it through the App Store approval process?
Read/post comments
**Frustrated by iPhone Cell Trouble? Tap to Tell AT&T** -- AT&T has
released a free iPhone app called AT&T Mark the Spot to let you
report network trouble directly to the firm. The app uses GPS data
to report your location when you tell the company of a failed call,
no coverage, data failure, or poor voice quality. This is a superb
idea on AT&T's part; let's see if it results in noticeable network
improvement.
Read/post comments
**AirPort Base Stations Update Includes Higher Future Speed** --
Editor Glenn Fleishman discovered that Apple boosted the highest
possible speed of its AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule
in the October 2009 hardware refresh. The top raw rate is now 450
Mbps - but new adapters will be required to use those speeds.
Read/post comments
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 14 December 2009
-----------------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson
article link:
Old Mac technology continues to be a focus for TidBITS Talk readers,
as this week we discuss ways to use an aging HP scanner under Snow
Leopard, installing Rosetta for Eudora, networking an old printer,
and erasing a 1 GB SCSI hard disk (we like the hammer idea). Also
this week, a look at iPhoto '09, comparing BusyCal and BusySync for
synchronizing calendars, and a surprising discount on MobileMe in an
Apple retail store.
**MobileMe Renewal--Apple Retail Store matches Amazon** -- Amazon has
in recent years offered a worthwhile discount on MobileMe service
(which can be used to renew an existing account). One reader
discovered that Apple would match the online price when he brought
it to a representative's attention at an Apple retail store. (1
message)
**BusyCal vs. BusySync** -- Both of these BusyMac programs improve on
iCal's functionality, but which one to choose? (11 messages)
**AppleTalk missing in Snow Leopard?** Readers discuss ways of using
older printers now that AppleTalk is no longer supported. (4
messages)
**Scanning capability in Preview vs. legal-size paper** -- The
scanning support built into Snow Leopard is a welcome improvement,
but VueScan may be a better alternative for some. (2 messages)
**iPhoto '09** -- Dissatisfaction with iPhoto '09 may be a result of
not being aware of the program's many ways to view one's library and
how its terminology has changed over time. (5 messages)
**Running Eudora in Snow Leopard** -- Despite not having been updated
in years, Eudora continues to work in Snow Leopard, but requires the
optional installation of Rosetta, which is nothing to worry about.
(11 messages)
**Help erasing old SCSI disk** -- An old hard disk with a whopping 1
GB of storage faces destruction. Is there any way to access the
disk's data to erase it or is a hammer the best option? (4 messages)
$$
This is TidBITS, a free weekly technology newsletter providing timely
news, insightful analysis, and in-depth reviews to the Macintosh and
Internet communities. Feel free to forward to friends; better still,
please ask them to subscribe!
Non-profit, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or
link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We
do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication,
product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their
companies. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017.
Copyright 2009 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license.
Contact us at:
TidBITS Web site:
License terms:
Full text search:
Subscriptions:
Account help: